S. Parkes Cadman

Infobox clergy
name = Samuel Parkes Cadman

---

image_size = 240px
image_caption = S. Parkes Cadman at age 46 in 1910
birth_date = December 18, 1864
birth_place = Wellington, Shropshire, England
death_date = Death date and age|1936|7|12|1864|12|18
death_place = Plattsburg, New York, U.S.
church = Congregational Christian Churches
offices_held = New York radio pastor (1923-1928);
Speaker, NBC radio network (1928-1936);
President, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America (1924-1928)
congregations = Metropolitan Methodist Church, New York City, (1895-1901);
Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn, New York (1901-1936)
education = Richmond College, University of London;
Wesleyan College
occupation = Protestant Christian
ordained =
spouse =
parents = Samuel Cadman and Betsy (Parkes) Cadman
children = Frederick, Lillian, Marie

Samuel Parkes Cadman (December 18, 1864-July 12, 1936), better known as S. Parkes Cadman, was a prominent clergyman, newspaper writer, and pioneer Christian radio broadcaster of the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. He was an early advocate of ecumenism and an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism and racial intolerance. By the time of his death in 1936, he was called "the foremost minister of Congregational faith" by the "New York Times"."S. Parkes Cadman dies in coma at 71", "The New York Times", July 12, 1936.]

Early life

S. Parkes Cadman was born in Wellington, Shropshire, England, where he worked in a coal mine for ten years, beginning at age 11. A voracious reader, he read books while working in the mine, in between hauling loads of coal. He became interested in theology and began speaking at age 18 as a lay preacher in local Methodist churches. He studied at Richmond College of the University of London and at Wesley College seminary. While a seminarian in 1888, he heard Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army speak in London, recalling years later, "I have not heard since anything which moved me more deeply than that remarkable address . . . delivered in the purest English, with faultless diction, in a voice like the pealing of a silver bell across a still lake." [cite web | author= John D. Waldron | title=Catherine Booth | publisher=Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy | url=http://www.whwomenclergy.org/articles/article1.php | accessdate=2007-12-18 ]

Ministry

New York churches

After graduating from seminary, Cadman moved to the United States, to pastor a local Methodist church in Millbrook, New York. In 1895, he started the Metropolitan Methodist Church on Seventh Avenue between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets, in New York City, where his preaching attracted large crowds. [cite news |title=The Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman May Leave Methodist Church | date=March 10, 1900 | publisher="The New York Times" | url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E2DD1339E733A25753C1A9659C946197D6CF | accessdate=2007-12-18 ] In 1901, he left the Metropolitan Methodist Church to lead the Central Congregational Church of Brooklyn, New York, where he would minister for 35 years until his death in 1936. The church grew to become one of the largest U.S. Congregationalist assemblies during his pastorate.cite web | title=Cadman Memorial Church | publisher=NYAGO | url=http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Bkln/html/CadmanMemorial.html | accessdate=2007-12-18 ]

Radio broadcasting

In 1923, he pioneered the use of the then-new medium of radio to broadcast his sermons, becoming "the first of the 'radio pastors', his sermons reach [ing] the ears of millions", said the "New York Times". [cite news |title=Radio Religion|publisher="Time" magazine | date=January 21, 1946 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934406,00.html | accessdate=2007-12-16 ] In 1928, he began a weekly Sunday afternoon radio broadcast on the NBC radio network, his powerful oratory reaching a nationwide audience of five million persons. [cite news | title=Air Worship | publisher="Time" magazine | date= February 9, 1931 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741032,00.html | accessdate=2007-12-19 ] He was also a frequent speaker from 1928 to 1936 on NBC's Sunday morning program, "The National Radio Pulpit", sharing the long-running series' microphone with Ralph W. Sockman.

His writings

Newspaper column

Cadman began writing a daily newspaper column for the "New York Herald Tribune" in 1926. It was soon syndicated nationwide as "Dr. Cadman's Daily Column", giving advice, answering readers' questions, and providing commentary on current events from a Christian perspective. [cite news | title=Oracle | publisher="The New York Times" | date=December 21, 1925 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928554,00.html | accessdate=2007-12-19 ]

On December 2, 1934, he wrote an article condemning the Nazi German government for the firing of theologian Karl Barth from a German university post as a result of the professor's outspoken opposition to the Nazi regime and adament refusal to sign an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Cadman praised Barth's courage, comparing him to Christian leaders of the past such as John Calvin and John Knox. [cite news | author=S. Parkes Cadman | title=Barth is extolled for defying Nazis | publisher="The New York Times" | date=December 2, 1934 | url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA081EFC3558177A93C0A91789D95F408385F9 | accessdate=2007-12-18 ] Cadman later called for the U.S. to boycott the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, because of the Nazis' anti-Semitic policies.

Books

Among the many books authored by Cadman are:
* "The Victory of Christmas" (1909)
* "Charles Darwin and other English thinkers" (1911)
* "The War and its issues" (1914)
* "Kaiser or Christ?" (1916)
* "The Three Religious Leaders of Oxford and their Movements — John Wycliffe, John Wesley, and John Henry Newman" (1916), reprinted by Kessinger in 2007 (ISBN 0548116563)
* "Ambassadors of God" (1920)
* "Christianity and the State" (1924)
* "Imagination and religion" (1926)
* "The plain man's use of the Bible" (1927)
* "The Christ of God" (1929)
* "Peace" (1929)
* "Everyday Questions and Answers" (1930)
* "The Parables of Jesus" (1931), reprinted by Random House in 1999 (ISBN 0517205467)
* "Prophets of Israel" (1933)

Quotations

During the course of his church ministry and extensive writings spanning a forty-year period, Cadman became widely quoted. Among his better-known statements are:
* "A little experience often upsets a lot of theory."
* "Nobody dreams of music in hell, and nobody conceives of heaven without it."
* "Beyond domestic animals and our response to their fealty and affection, we have a peculiar charge concerning the wild animals which supply our clothes, food and adornments."
* "Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility."
* "There can be no great people without a great religion and all your talk about character is so much playing down the wind, unless the regenerating and creative forces make a man obedient and the highest law reigns in his heart."

He also was a strong supporter of Scouting, writing:

National church and community leader

Rev. Cadman was one of the founders of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, an association of several Protestant denominations and the forerunner of today's National Council of Churches, and served as president of the council between 1924-1928. He was also named the second "Honorary Moderator" of the Congregational Christian Churches, succeeding former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. He was one of the co-founders in 1927 of the National Conference on Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), along with Charles Evans Hughes and others, to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism in the 1920s and 1930s. [cite web | title=History of the National Conference for Community and Justice | url=http://www.faithstreams.com/topics/members-and-partners/national-conference-for-community-and-justice.html | accessdate=2007-12-19 ] He was appointed chairman of the National Committee for Chinese Famine Relief in 1928 to provide assistance for nine million Chinese facing starvation. [cite news | title=Cadman Will Save | publisher="Time" magazine | date=May 21, 1928 | url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,731770,00.html | accessdate=2007-12-19 ]

Death

On Sunday, July 5, 1936, S. Parkes Cadman was preaching at an interfaith service in upstate Westport, New York, when he suddenly collapsed from acute appendicitis. He died a week later, on July 12, at a Plattsburg, New York, hospital of peritonitis. After his death, he was lauded by NBC president Lenox R. Lohr, who said, "As the first minister of the air, he was identified with radio beginning in 1923. Since that time more than 500 sermons reflecting the inspiring thought of Dr. Cadman have been broadcast." New York City's Episcopal Bishop William T. Manning said Cadman had "a noble record of service as a citizen and as a Christian minister." Rev. Cadman was buried in Brooklyn, New York, where he is memorialized in Cadman Plaza, named in his honor by New York City in 1939. [cite web | title=Cadman Plaza Park | publisher=New York City Department of Parks & Recreation | url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=11811 | accessdate=2007-12-19 ] The Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn was renamed "Cadman Memorial Church" in 1942 in his memory.

References

External links

* [http://www.bibleteacher.org/spc_4.htm "Christ and Cæsar", by S. Parkes Cadman (sermon text)]